Let's be realistic.

Brilliant and touching

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Ann Carrington (Landis) stands to inherent a fortune on her 21st birthday and is invited to her home where she is to meet her father for the very first time. Ann brings her best friend Gail Richards (Blondell) to stay with her in the home. The girls end up changing bedrooms to sleep in and Gail is murdered, the murderer intended on killing Ann instead for the inheritance: money and home. The ghost of Gail ends up enlisting the help of Cosmo Topper (Young) in order to find out who killed her and why. A reluctant Topper helps to cracks the murder case.Fun story! Large old mansion, plenty of secret passageways, a phantom killer on the loose, a ghost, bungling police and a cast of zany characters pull off a film enjoyable for the whole family to watch.8/10

This is one of my favourite movies and another one that my daughter and I have watched repeatedly over the years. It was a second sequel film to the 1937 Topper and most decidedly the best of the three, a perfect mix of murder and slapstick, although we couldn't help but feel sorry for poor old Joan Blondell. It was very similar (in spirit) to Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit in the attitude to death but very different in its attitude to humour.Heiress Carole Landis visits her father at his spooky mansion for the first time with her lively friend who gets murdered by a sinister black cloaked figure. Roland Young played meek and mild Cosmo Topper again, and again beset by ghostly problems to solve and earthly ones caused by his flibbertigibbet wife Clara played by Billie Burke. The difference this time was made by wise cracking taxi driver Dennis O'Keefe, manic cop Donald Macbride and Topper's resigned chauffeur Rochester, who provided a plethora of smart ass one liners throughout the too short film. Favourite bits: the entire cast being ordered into the icebox; Macbride & O'Keefe's continual mutual putdowns (Where's your taxi?/Where do you think it is?); the beautiful scene where Macbride asks Landis to identify the dead body and warns her she will have an unpleasant experience – whereupon she violently screams and faints in a heap; the great George Zucco's mad roving eyes whilst delivering his prime hammiest performance; so many other memorable scenes.But not one second is wasted in a brilliant 88 minutes, it all adds up to a breathtaking roller-coaster ride and wildly improbable fantasy fun. Wholeheartedly recommended.

The second TOPPER film – TOPPER TAKES A TRIP (1938) – is curiously unavailable for appraisal (unless you happen to be one of those born-lucky U.S. residents who have the privilege of a TCM connection) but it seems to have followed the same route as its predecessor…except for the non-reappearance of Cary Grant which, following the release of one of the peaks of the Screwball genre THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937), he had become a bona-fide film star in his own right and his services had evidently become too expensive for Hal Roach's limited pockets! The third entry in the series, then, gave the formula an ingenious twist by marrying it with the popular old dark house-type of film. While I wouldn't go so far as to say that Topper's presence within this context is redundant, it does feel a bit contrived and, at times, he seems reduced to a supporting player in his own star vehicle. Still, the film (scripted by future noir expert Jonathan Latimer and Gordon Douglas, who would become a director of some distinction and had actually just helmed the minor Laurel & Hardy comedy SAPS AT SEA [1940]) is a deft combination of various familiar yet irresistible elements which render the mix all the more pleasing.And so it is that, for the next 90 minutes or so, we are in the company of a ditzy blonde (Joan Blondell who's killed off early and becomes the ghost in this case), a put-upon heiress (ill-fated Carole Landis), a mysterious masked assailant (whose identity when revealed proves quite clever), an ailing father (H.B. Warner), an enigmatic maid (Raffaela Ottiano from THE DEVIL-DOLL [1936]) a sinister doctor (horror regular George Zucco), a frightened manservant (hilarious Eddie "Rochester" Anderson who actually steals the film – with even an in-joke about his long-running collaboration with comedian Jack Benny on radio), a dumb cop (a typically flustered Donald MacBride), etc. For the record, the best gag has Rochester falling repeatedly through a hole in the ground to the riverbed beneath the old house, and then being persistently kept from re-emerging by a playful seal!

I must I admit that the other two installments are very funny screwball comedies, but this one tops them all.The mainstays of Roland Young and Billie Burke are back as the tentative couple who are always one-part bumbler and the other-part clueless. Their scenes are always funny as Young tries so hard not to let on to his clueless wife what is really going on! But the star who carries this one is none other than that bombshell comedienne herself, JOAN BLONDELL. Just when you think she is only going to be a sidekick, she turns into THE kick. Her comic flair and range serve her well. As do the talents of the Donald MacBride as the Police Captain. (It's amazing how many defenders of the law he actually played during his long career - which by the way goes all the way back to the silents.) [1914]. The other star in his own right is Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. He shines numerous times in this outing as the Topper driver. Every comedy needs a great last scene or last line. And this time, it belongs to Rochester. Many people do not know that he became a wealthy man and lived in the "Hills" alongside many of the film star greats of the time. No mean feat for a "man of color" in those days. What a great talent he was! All in all, so many others also bring this ensemble work to work...notably the always underused Patsy Kelley, whose frumpish comedic gifts rounded out this wonderfully funny movie.Sit back and enjoy this ghostly screwball gem!